Lutey's Knife
by kamikaze-djali
Summary: Hellboy and Roger are sent to investigate the latest death in a cursed family and in the process learn the truth behind the Celtic legend of Lutey and the Mermaid. Now that she's found, can Roger be saved before he falls victim to the curse as well?
1. Whalebones

_**Author Note:** This tale is based on a story I remember reading as a kid called "Lutey and the Mermaid". It's stuck with me for about 18 years, and now I know what it is I must do with this beautiful story. This is a three-chapter story, so hopefully it's enough for a good fix. Disclaimer: Hellboy, Roger and B.P.R.D. are not mine, nor will they ever be. I'm borrowing them. ;) There are also a few other references in here to various folk songs and such. _

_To first-time and repeat readers: I have fixed most of the irritating text formatting. Please R&R! _

* * *

**Whalebones and a Curse  
**

Twenty-six ivory spikes stood from a melting shamble of what was once a graceful and elegant creature. Once singing in a haunting and melodious underwater voice, it now sounded out with the irritable drone of squawking and flapping of feathers. Ahikmu, the whale, lay dead on the shore. Here aged body now a feast for the scavengers that swarmed around her lifeless and rotting form.

Luke walked among the many dunes and tidepools, searching for bits of beach glass, coins, treasures and perhaps the occasional whiskey bottle washed up from the sea. He kicked out with his boot, flipping over numerous pieces of weathered driftwood in his search. His four-year-old son followed him at a distance, mimicking his drunken fathers behaviour.

As the sun reached its' peak, the man approached the rotting corpse. He chased away the birds with his cane and empty whiskey bottle, only to have them return to their feast, squawking angrily. Luke cursed out at the birds, throwing his bottle down onto the sand. Suddenly there was a loud screech. The birds scattered, the water began to crash against the rocks. Suddenly, a large wave swept over the whale and Luke. The screech did not stop.

When the waters parted, all that remained of Luke was an iron knife. The young child walked up to where his father had stood but moments before. He kicked the old knife handle with his big toe, then picked it up and placed it in his pocket.

* * *

A set of cloven footprints lay on the damp sand below the towering cliffs, near those of a large pair of boots. Hellboy and Roger made their way along the isolated Cornish beach towards Luke's home where his wife and child awaited their arrival.

Roger adjusted his belt anxiously. Hellboy walked up to the door, questioning whether or not knocking would cause the fragile glass door to shatter. He held his hand, bearing a fingerless glove, inches from the frosted glass. The door swung open to reveal a small boy holding a green plastic turtle in one hand a sippy cup in the other. The child giggled, then ran back into the house.

Moments later a woman in her late thirties appeared at the door, child in tow. She stared for several long moments before asking her two visitors inside. Hellboy patted the kid on the head as he walked by, his eyes focusing on the décor of the home. Rare paintings, sculptures and relics filled the home. Ikea furniture brightly contrasted the older pieces.

"Hellboy, B.P.R.D." He offered a gloved hand to the mother, who stared at his right hand, then shifted her gaze to Roger.

"This is Roger, who will be helping us find your husband." Roger offered his hand to the woman, smiling. The woman remained still, her eyes fixated on his white eyes.

"Dolores." The woman stuttered, still staring at Roger nervously. "Dolores Havelock. Welcome to my…"

"Bare bottom!" screamed the boy, causing his mother to turn a similar shade to Hellboy. The boy giggled and pointed at Roger. Hellboy scooped him up and placed him into his mother's arms.

"M'am. If we are going to find your husband, we're going to have to need some information."

"Of course. Please help yourself to the coffee. I will be back in one moment." Dolores disappeared with her son, who was still giggling.

"The mouths of babes." Stated Hellboy, stifling an odd grin. Roger pulled his vest and belt a little lower. "Notice anything?"

Hellboy nodded towards the mantle, where a wooden mermaid sat fixed to the wall, a knife through it's contorted and painful body. Roger stood in the kitchen, pouring two large cups of coffee and gathering a large handful of shortbread cookies. As he walked to Hellboy he stared at the mermaid, torsed and twisted body skewered on the old knife.

"Celtic legend describes a beachcomber who, while looking for treasures, came upon a mermaid trapped in a tidepool. In return for his kindness, she offered him three wishes, for a deadly price."

Hellboy sipped the warm, weak coffee and completed Rogers thought about cookies, taking several.

"He saved himself by pulling a knife of iron on her, but was claimed years later."

Dolores returned to the room while Hellboy studied the knife.

"You'll not find him, you know. Like his father before him, and every other man in his family, he has succumbed to the curse." The mother burst into tears. "What I need is for you to save my son!"

"M'am." Roger spoke softly, extending his gray hand toward Dolores, who pulled away slightly. He pulled his hand away from her, returning it to his naked leg. "We're here to help, we just need to know a few things."

Dolores closed her eyes, stifling tears while quickly nodding her head.

"The knife is cursed. She will claim whatever man holds it. My son, my precious Wade, as taken it into his hand. She will claim him as she has every other Havelock male for the past three hundred years."

Dolores swirled her tea. She continued to explain the family history and all the men who had died as a result of the knife. Sometimes it had fallen, other times it had been touched as a dare. Even those who had moved inland would eventually succumb to the power of the knife and family curse.

"She took our minister, too. He tried to cure the curse; he took the knife in his hand. Three weeks later he disappeared. My husband stepped on the knife last year, it washed up on the beach and went into his foot."

Hellboy pressed the palm of his right hand to his forehead. Roger looked over at him and heard the words "stupid" "inland" and "foolish sons of –" muttered into stone.

Hellboy reached up to the mantle to grasp the knife. Roger seized the blade in his hand before Hellboy could touch it. Hellboy's eyes flashed at Roger as he held it in his hands. Dolores remained frozen on the sofa, nearly dropping her tea on the tile floor.

"She will destroy you."

Hellboy downed the last of his coffee, setting the mug next to the pained mermaid sculpture.

"We'll need a boat, m'am. Where's the best place to set out onto the water?"

"Take Lukey's boat. It's the wooden one at the very end of the dock."

Hellboy stifled a grunt and stepped away from the doorframe. The mothers' face turned white as the two visitors left her home. She stood at the door for several moments after they had departed onto the cold sandy beach.

* * *

"She likes you" chuckled Hellboy.

Roger held the knife in his hands, feeling the time-ravaged lines and nicks in the whalebone handle and iron blade.

"Why doesn't the family just move away or destroy the knife?"

"Exactly."

The two agents continued to walk down the sandy beach, stomping beach glass and washed up treasures into the pure white sand.

* * *

_Thanks for reading!_


	2. Ula

_**Author Note:**__ This tale is based on a story I remember reading as a kid called "Lutey and the Mermaid". It's stuck with me for about 18 years, and now I know what it is I must do with this beautiful story. Disclaimer: Hellboy, Roger and B.P.R.D. are not mine, nor will they ever be. I'm borrowing them. ;) There are also a few other references in here to various folk songs and such. Spot them if you can._

* * *

Ula 

Hellboy and Roger found the boat tied up next to a small inlet. The paint was chipped and peeling and the copper nails were beginning to loosen and corrode. Hellboy carefully stepped onto the deck of the boat, his weight causing it to rock.

"Lukey's boat is painted green, Hellboy " said Roger

"Ain't she the prettiest boat you've ever seen?" Hellboy grinned

"Uhh…Huh?" Roger remained on the dock.

"May as well jump in, your date awaits you."

Roger stepped into the small, yet unexpectedly sturdy, boat. Hellboy yanked the rope from the dock and started the small fishingboat's engine.

"Tank's full and there's lots of reserve. You ready to fish?"

Roger stood near the stern, watching the dock get farther and farther away with every groan of the engine.

Hours passed. Hellboy had put his hooves on the control panel, having turned the engines off.

"Why was I sent and not Abe?"

"If Abe were to go in, we may never get him back. He's not so different from the mermaid we're seeking, he may truly and fully fall in love with her."

Roger's eyes glazed over, his thoughts drifting back to Venice.

* * *

Nightfall gradually crept upon the small green fishingboat. Hellboy readied hand at his gun. The chill of the evening was made more powerful with the open seas. It became colder as the night passed and the star-less sky thickened with black clouds. Hellboy drank coffee, Roger sat in silence, fiddling with St. Neot's ring, St. Cloud's left shoe, a battle-damaged amulet bearing an image of Raphael the Archangel, used horseshoe nails, micellaneous curios and and tracking device Hellboy had given him.

"She must not be one for making night calls." Hellboy refilled his cup. "We'll try the shoreline first thing in the morning."

The waves tossed the small green boat into early dawn, when the first rays of light began to dissolve the clouds overhead and thicken the mist over the water, hiding the shore from view. A sudden tilt of the boat caused Hellboy to spill his coffee on the crude green table.

"Aw, crap!"

Hellboy tossed the mug to the deck. He heard a firm "plop" into the water and saw the head of his friend disappear beneath the waves.

"Son of a bitch!"

Hellboy dropped the anchor and stood on deck, anxiously awiting to hear from Roger. The tracking beacon had better work, if not he'd be getting wetter a whole lot quicker.

Roger felt himself drift downward, through the chilling black water and into a soothing liquid softness that surrounded him like warm loving hands. Roger opened his eyes, yet saw nothing. The seawater clouded his vision into a blur of silver flashes over a sheet of rippling darkness. The singing was real, as was the touch of slippery fingers coursing over his rough skin. He closed his eyes.

"Hush, mere mortal, my love is true. Don't run away, or my water will claim you…"

Roger felt a slimy, long fish tail expertly surround his legs and waist, delicately grasping his body. He made no attempt to swim away, though he could feel himself sinking deeper with each passing moment. Her tail twisted firmly around him, carefully avoiding the iron ring that had bound him to the Alchemist's table long ago.

The pressure built up as they drifted deeper, the mermaids' voice literally drowned by the throbbing within Roger's head. He felt warm lips suddenly meet with his own and opened his eyes to a world of liquid crystal illuminated by pale green light. Gold, jewels and lost treasures littered the cavern floor.

Roger looked up to observe his captor. She floated but an arm's reach away and looked upon him anxiously. Her eyes were large and dark, her features sharp and serious. Her face was framed with a thick head of tightly plaited silver hair. Her skin was pale blue, gently melting into a long fishes' tail. She was breathtakingly beautiful, a face reminiscent of the Goddess he'd met long ago. Looking upon her, Roger also had a sick feeling within himself that she was terribly unhappy. He clutched the pocket bearing Hellboy's gifts.

"You are brave and foolish, Homunculus. I could take your life from you this very moment."

Roger stared at the beauty before him, his white glowing eyes studying her every movement and expression.

"I mean no harm." Roger spoke softly, the mermaid relaxed. Her whole body seemed to soften before him.

"Then why are you here? To claim the riches valued so dearly by those on land?" The mermaid swam around Roger, her eyes, hands and tail gesturing as if she were about to cry. The mermaid stared into Roger's eyes "Do you come to stab, wound and hurt me as every other man has? To betray all that I have to offer?"

The mermaid slowed to a standstill, her great tailfin fanning out inches from the ocean floor, throwing sea-dust into the water above thousands of glittering gold coins. Roger stood still, his eyes following the mermaids'.

"Of course you want none of that from Ula, for you have no concept of greed, hate or what it is to want. You live your life as a child among your friends. Even now, you have been sent by a demon to claim me."

"I chose to come here. I took the knife into my hand." mumbled Roger, his words staunched by the water. Ula nodded at his words. "I came to you of my own free will."

"And your demon friend waits for you." Ula swam around Roger, her tail brushing his chest and neck. She eyed the tracking device fastened to Roger's belt. "Were only it that simple; a quick knife to the heart and I am gone, the Havelock's and treasure seekers forever spared and the witches who played me a fool pardoned their ongoing curse."

Roger lowered his head in thought. Betrayal and hurt filled her voice. "I will not kill you, Ula," stated Roger.

"What makes me think I can place any thread of trust in you, a puppet to a demon?"

Her long, graceful tail cut through the liquid glass effortlessly. Roger watched her tail flit as she moved, her entire left fin was missing, a crude oval scar in it's place. Whatever had made the cut had been deliberate and painful, a deep tarnish on glittering silver.

"I wish to help you." Roger reached to his belt and turned the tracking beacon off.


	3. A Broken Promise

_This is my short installment after a LONG bout of writer's block for this story. I actually had to go back and re-research my characters and relics, since having left it so long and having not made any useful notes I forgot. Shame on me. Too many twists in the plot and the author gets confused. Maybe not a good sign.__ Same disclaimer as always. Hellboy, Roger are Mignolas, the legends are their own. I am merely borrowing for my own amusement and for that of my two or three readers._

* * *

Promises Broken

Hellboy, having heard Roger's last words, turned his eyes to the tall cliffs near Luke's home and wife. Three wishes the mermaid had granted to Lutey, hundreds of years ago, they echoed in his mind. A seaside home that should have done well to be moved inland.

…_and he chose those he thought would do good: the power to _

_break the spells of witchcraft and to compel familiar spirits for the good of others, _

_and that these powers should descend in his family. She granted these, and because he had wished_

_unselfishly said that none of his family should come to want,_

_ and gave him her comb by which he could summon her._

Hellboy picked the legend apart in his mind yet again. The mermaid had mentioned betrayal. The sort of powers he had given Lutey were indeed of great proportion in relation to her own. The iron knife, central to the legend, may not have been used as self-defense, but rather a means of reneging on a deal. Hellboy felt the knife within the black silk pouch Roger had placed it in. The mermaid has been conned out of what she wanted most by a very wise trickster.

Sliding the knife onto the sand, he turned it with a stick. The blade was thick and rusted, attached to a thick handle of oddly shaped bone covered with smooth black and silver leather. He tilted the knife with the stick, the silver leather revealing a slightly iridescent property. Carefully nudging the blade into the bag, he left the beach.

It was still dark when Hellboy arrived at the home of Delores and Wade. The doors were fastened tightly and the windows closed, yet broken. The paint appeared chipped, worn and damaged unlike the previous day. Hellboy assisted his own entrance by lifting the door, not entirely gently, off of the doorframe with his right hand.

The house, which had been rather cozy the day before was now dusty and appeared empty

* * *

Roger sat calmly on the ocean floor, attempting to stack relics into castles and towers. He watched as Ula floated, nearly motionless, around her treasure cove. He movements sent warm currents over Roger. 

"Where are the men?"

The mermaid stopped in motion, turning slightly to the left, then sinking slowly to the ocean floor. "Not one has fulfilled the promise."

Roger stared at Ula, her eyes had softened. He said nothing.

"They hold me here, as they have all drifted away with the current. I am forgotten when the time comes for repayment."

Ula reached to the pile of relics and gently bounced a golden crown between her webbed fingers. She set it neatly on top of one of the towers Roger had built.

"So much they have taken, yet so little I ask in return. It would have been best to remain until the evening tide, none of this would have happened.

* * *

Hellboy walked through the house, in search of any trace of what had been there the day before. The floorboards were now rotten, the walls full of cracks and holes from years of blowing sand. Scraps of wallpaper, with patterns last seen in the 1950's dangled loosely from the walls. No spirits cried out, no voices lay behind the walls. Souls died here, yet he'd not seen it the day before. 

Walking through the different rooms, Hellboy nearly tripped upon a mummified corpse. Bending down for a better look it was clear it was once a woman. The clothes she wore were identical to those Delores had worn earlier. Hellboy narrowed his eyes as her studied her laughing jaw and tangled, rodent-infested hair. A turtle shell comb remained in the tangled mess. Delores had been a mere husk, stripped of her soul and free will, yet a careless witch had left her key to power upon her victim. He carefully removed the comb, placing it in his belt pocket and left the home to be eaten away by the sea's strong wind.

Passing through the fields towards town, a dry heap of moss attracted Hellboy's attention. Pointed rocks stood around the heap, as if a ruin of a cowshed. The cool stone, however, radiated heat and remained pristine in the face of the surrounding decay, as if a great stone tongue reaching into the night.

Hellboy stepped closer, his yellow eyes fixed deep within the inner light that burned from within the moss. Faeries and earth spirits filled the mound, milling about with their own business, which appeared serious. A brown spirit with blue eyes and bristly black hair turned its head toward the eyes that bore weight onto his already slumped posture. Hellboy watched as the entire mound appeared to open before him, revealing a depth and size much greater than the roof that covered it. Tir Na Nog lay before him.

The spirits, no longer oblivious to their silent observer began to gather near the entrance. Eolande, a small delicate fae, stepped forward. Her hair was of lightest silver, her eyes a frozen blue. Her voice was smooth and silent as a gentle stream, nearly hypnotic to mere mortals. She spoke slowly and deliberately, her words hanging slowly upon each syllable.

"You come at a convenient time, it is with great honour that we welcome your presence. It has been a very long time since our worlds last met. Please, step into our circle and join us for a fine meal and dance. You would be an honoured guest."

"Cut to the chase, lady. Where did Fatin take the child? The sun will be up in a few hours."

The faerie fixed her eyes into those of the demon. Her voice had changed.

"If you step inside we shall tell you."

Hellboy, glad to have a handful of horseshoe nails and some St. Johns Wort in his pocket, stepped inside. The seductive, yet inexperienced, Fatin would be as much a menace to the Fae as to Lutey's heirs. Yet Hellboy couldn't help but remember what Kate's words from long ago.

"_Very few mortals who step into a faerie mound ever return."_


	4. Tir Na Nog

_**Author Note**: I know I often use a flashback in my comicverse stories, yet feel it's good to help pull everyone into the backstory I've created for the characters. I am not confident enough in my writing to feel that I could tell the backstory without actually telling it point-blank. I've tried to make it less harsh by having the Fae explain part of the tale to Hellboy and Roger getting a different part from the mermaid, without filling in all the details. Let me know if it works. Please R&R. I do believe I am now back on track, though this is much harder to write than "Forgotten Lotus" was._

* * *

Tir Na Nog

Roger stared at Ula, who had by now settled herself on the ocean floor next to him. Both marveled at the height of the castle, it's towers and walls. Roger knew it as a crude replica of the Basilica San Marco.

"You have not come for riches. Tell me, Homunculus, why are you here."

Roger attempted to reply, yet his words melted into the water. The mermaid watched the movements of his lips. He spoke for several minutes, apparently deaf to his own silence underwater. She slumped her shoulders and pouted. She cast her eyes toward Roger's chest, then his eyes.

"I know not of a Cloacina. These waters are pure and clean."

Roger's lips now remained closed and unmoving, his white eyes blinking as he turned his head toward the towers of coins. Ula placed her webbed palm onto his hand.

"To be loved…"

* * *

1430, Cornwall, England

Lutey had visited the mermaid each day in secret, and she had soon fallen in love with him. Wanting more than anything to join him on land, yet without means, the mermaid promised him three gifts that would allow her to gain a soul and marry Lutey. He'd accepted the gifts and promised to use them wisely.

Shortly afterward, Lutey began breaking curses and donating wealth to the poor citizens as well as the church. Within his home, good meals and strong walls protected his family. Soon, however, Lutey found himself growing more attached to the youthful and innocent mermaid and her charms.

Curious of her husband's frequent beachcombing, Isolde, Lutey's wife, learned of the planned love affair and the source of their newfound prosperity. Desperate to keep her family together and nervous of the church Lutey had so lavishly helped, Isolde consulted a wise woman for help. The healer was, in reality, a novice witch.

Under cover of night, while Lutey slept, Isolde placed Lutey's iron knife, the comb and a few locks of her husbands' hair into a plain linen bag. She ran along the darkened trails and fields to the ramshackle hut of Fatin. Fatin laid the objects onto her table and nodded approvingly. She burned Lutey's hair with a candle, then mixed it with herbs, wax and oil. She spoke words that Isolde could not understand to the candle. She wrapped thick black threads around the handle of the blade and painted Isolde's hands and forearms, while explaining Isolde was to do.

"Promise me Lutey will be safe." Isolde pleaded.

"He will not suffer." The witch continued to paint Isolde's arms, her eyes focused on the rhythmic painting.

"I need to know that he will not die." Tears began to flow down her face in gentle streams. "…Oliver and Bryce need a father. I need to know I am doing the right thing."

"Your sons will lose their father if you fail to stop the mermaid. You must kill her if your husband is to remain yours."

Isolde nodded her head, then lifted her right shoulder to dab the tears away from her eyes with the sleeve of her dress.

Fatin placed the comb and knife in Isolde's painted hands. Isolde, still shedding tears, left toward the beach to call the mermaid and claim her husband as her own.

* * *

Hellboy wandered through Tir Na Nog with Eolande and her companions. Endless meadows, forests and mountains, dotted with silent rivers and streams surrounded them. There was no sky, no sun or stars and no horizon, yet a dim twilight enveloped the world in its entirety. As they moved, Eolande spoke.

"Fatin has been a curse to our people for some time. She is a mortal witch, who has stolen from others power, life and strength. She has destroyed mounds, rings and killed the children of the earth with their own magic. She exposed the Fae world to the mortals."

Hellboy walked beside Eolande, yet said nothing. His hooves tore holes in the thin fabric of grass and blossoms beneath his feet. He turned his head to see his footprints vanish into a never-ending field of blossoms. He swished his tail through the flowers, dissipating them into a swirl of blackness before they regained their former appearance.

"We are unable to kill her." The fairy turned, her feet knocking blossoms as she lifted herself above the grass. "Only a mortal with great power may destroy her." Hellboy could feel Eolande's eyes fixating upon his right hand.

"Fair enough. How is the mermaid involved?"

Eolande looked into her palms for a few moments, then fixed her gaze toward the grass. She took a slow breath, then placed her fingertips onto her temples, pushing back her violet hair. She lifted her gaze toward Hellboy's eyes once more, her fingers now resting beneath her narrow chin. She breathed out.

"Ula is our sister. She gave her power freely and blindly; she traded her link to our world for the love of a mortal. Ula now remains a victim of her own spell, as she may no longer break it."

"…and, lemme guess, Fatin now holds this link."

"Fatin controls the power, yet another carries it."

Hellboys drew a deep breath, his eyes opening wide for a brief second. His mind raced to the little boy who held the sippy cup, the boy who showed little fear of Roger or himself.

"Where is Fatin?"

"This way." Eolande stopped at a pool of water, and turned toward Hellboy. "Step through and you will meet with Fatin and the child. Caution ye must show, as Fatin awaits your arrival."

The purple-haired fairy vanished from sight, leaving Hellboy with the pool of water. Hellboy turned his head to observe the idyllic world of Tir Na Nog vanishing into blackness.

"Aw crap."

Hellboy loaded his gun and jumped into the puddle, which swallowed him up like stone dropped into a well.


	5. Fatin

_**Author note:** this is just a short installment meant to remind those reading this that i've not forgotten it. The rest of the story has been planned out fairly well. I just need time to work on it. The moss came to me while talking with a botanist friend. It will hopefully prove more entertaining later on. Roger and Hellboy are not mine. They are borrowed._

* * *

Fatin

It was damp, dark and far too quiet for Hellboys' liking. The palest moonlight penetrated through the thick forest canopy. Moss-laden branches appeared to bow down, as if reaching over him with dripping bloody fingers. There was no underbrush, none living at any rate. The tree trunks were picked clean of twigs, allowing a clear view of the forest had it been daylight. Scanning his surroundings with a wary eye and a low grumble, he chambered a cartridge and continued walking.

His hooves cut into the dense forest path, the moisture of the forest floor absorbing the sound. Pine needles, moss and rotten twigs lay underfoot.

Standing in a small clearing, Helboy looked up at the pale half-moon, it's light outlining the rough dead branches of the trees and the narrow winding path before him. Clouds moved overhead, carrying a breeze that caused the branches to tremble and shake. Hellboy brushed off the moss fragments that landed on him and continued on the trail.

The path forked at the top of a small hill. Hellboy scanned through the trees and brush. The sound of rain rode on the breeze, something small and quick moved through the darkness and water. Hellboy turned left.

* * *

Roger closed his eyes as felt the mermaids' webbed fingers caress his shoulders and back. Her touch was light and gentle, her fingers turning small currents of water over his skin. He let out a deep sigh of pleasure. Roger leaned back into the sand as Ulas' tail wrapped lightly around his left leg; Roger could feel the softness of her scales brush against his inner thigh. Her thick hair gently wisped over him, dragging small grains of sand over his face and torso. Behind closed eyes, Roger saw Venice, the sewers and Cloacina. Her arms reached out to him, calling to him.

"You are more than these mere mortals. Come with me. Stay with me." Cloacina walked around him, her dress flowing, her hair neatly secured in her Goddess' headdress. "I will love you."

"They are my friends. I belong with them." Roger held his arms out to her, yet his touch failed to reach Cloacina.

"They will be your end. Stay with me. Forget about your friends, those who will have you destroyed."

"I cannot."

"Whom do you love?"

"I love you, Cloacina. My friends need me."

"Come with me, if only for a while."

"I will come with you. For a while." Roger placed his hands on Cloacinas' shoulders and stared into her eyes. Cloacina placed her hands on his cheeks and moved toward him. She licked her lips and leaned in toward him.

Roger lay on the sand, the mermaid balancing over his head. She caressed his face, his smooth, hairless and grey face. The tips of her long hair brushed against his slowly moving chest. Ula placed her hands on the chest of the homunculus and slid them over his navel-less abdomen.

"You are my last hope, homunculus. May you not suffer for my actions."

The mermaid looked upward as she coursed her fingers between Rogers' legs, feeling the ancient wood and cold brass ring. The mermaid called out in agony, pulling her hands into her coiled tail. The ring was iron.

* * *

Hellboy brushed the moss from his jacket as he continued to follow the bobbing branches. It was moving quickly, whatever it was, yet appeared to be moving in a straight line. He holstered his gun and cut through the underbrush. He soon met up with the entity that had been running ahead of him. It was a girl, or rather the wispy shadow of one, that stood before him. Her feet melted into the damp earth, her shadowless form waving slightly in the night breeze. Her eyes were downcast, her dress soiled. Her arms were blue, her hands red.

"Where you headed, kid."

The girl did not respond, she did not acknowledge his presence. She knelt down and sifted through the forest floor with her fingers. Her hand moved the soil no more than a thought stops a raging fire. She shook her head from side to side and slammed her open palms onto the earth. She turned her head upward, staring toward the sky. Her mouth and eyes appeared as gaping black holes. Her mouth opened wide, her eye sockets disappearing as she let out a silent scream into the night.. The girl then faded with the breeze.

As Hellboy wandered deeper into the forest, the trees became taller, the light dimmer. Hellboy flicked another chunk of moss from his shoulder, which stung as he pulled it off. The forest was filled with wandering souls, like that of the girl, screaming out into the night in silence. He could feel the chill on the night air throbbing with their tortured pain.

Soon Hellboy arrived at a large twisted tree, one with a large round door between the uplifted roots. The tree was dead, rotting and moss-laden. The door, round and solid, reminded him of what a Hobbit would make.

Hellboy swept more moss fragments from his shoulder, yet realized they would not slough away. Scraping his skin with his stone hand, he realized it was growing over him. He pulled the buckles from the right sleeve and tossed his duster jacket onto the forest floor. A thick coat of pulsating green enveloped the jacket. He scraped the green moss from his neck and hair, blood seeping to the surface. He could feel the sting as the moss hungrily swallowed his raw and exposed flesh. He could taste salt as he pulled it from his face.

Hellboy drew pulled the round door off the hinges and pointed his pistol into the depths of the tree house.

"I know you're in here, Lady. Hand over the kid and I'll let you off easy."

A gust of cold air struck Hellboys' face. He took several steps back, then aimed his pistol at the swirl of dead leaves and damp air that emerged from the hole.

* * *

_I hope this was a good fix / teaser. The battle sequences are not far away! More carnivorous moss to follow!  
_


End file.
